Dreams fade as we awake and we forget.Some dreams are recurring. Sadly, fewever become real.Hollywood is a land of dreams as elusive and as fragile as the visions of the night.

If you have recently driven by the historic May Company department store built in 1939 at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax and wondered about the constructions going on, it is a dream coming to our waking world.The site is becoming the 250 million dollar, six-story AcademyMuseumof Motion Pictures, planned to be completed in 2018. It is a truly inspired location,next to the Los AngelesCountyMuseum (LACMA), west of the La Brea Tar Pits and the PageMuseum. It is across the street from the PetersenAutomotiveMuseum. Remember, it is the AcademyMuseum, NOT the “Los AngelesCountyHollywoodMuseum.” That was another version of the dream that was dreamed for years, but faded over time…

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April 17, 1960 Governor Edmund G. Brown signed a bill allowing the Los Angeles county board of supervisors to establish the Hollywood Motion Picture Museum, which would cost an estimated $4 million.The state Senate had approved the measure 31-01.

Sol Lesser was named president of the Hollywood Museum Associates, non-profit corporation.Vance King was named PR director & manager of HollywoodMuseum. Two hundred TV, movie, and community leaders became founder-members (price: $1,000 each). Among those signed were Bing Crosby, Robert Cummings, Desi Arnaz, Walt Disney, Ralph Edwards, and Frank Sinatra. The name was changed to the Los AngelesCountyMotion Picture & TelevisionMuseum.It wasn’t long before Syd Cassyd, who founded the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, became the curator of the Television Collection.

Programs showed to the public, the collection of artifacts and the plans of the museum, to be located in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles County. The acquiring of historic American films began, with the cooperation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Museum of Modern Art, Eastman House, Cinematheque Francaise, and the Library of Congress.It all starts with the movies.

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Sol Lesser showed the interested public clips from Art Linkletter and John Guoded productions.In the lobby, as examples of what might be part of the museum, were wax figures, created by Katherine Stubergh, of Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, and Rudolph Valentino, and artifacts from the collections of Sol Lesser and Cecil B. DeMille.

The building wasdeveloped by William I Pereira. It was to be a rectangular structure 50 feet high and 450 feet long, a series of floating platforms, connected by ramps and escalators.The central section was devoted to demonstrations of motion picture and television productions.Other features included a restaurant, shops, and concessions. The design represented four years of work by Pereira, who was the architect of the Los AngelesCountyArt Museum, on Wilshire.His plan for the HollywoodMuseum was deemed as unfeasible and far too expensive to build and operate Pereira explained that the museum was “not a repository for dusty relics but a dynamic exposition of a creative and exciting art form and industry.”(…but personally, I like dusty relics)

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The location of the museum became fluid; the Los AngelesCountySupervisors required that it be in the Hollywood district.By 1963, the costs had bloomed and the County had awarded a grant of 6.5 million dollars for the museum.

The land was purchased across from the Hollywood Bowl.The County evicted Steven B. Anthony from the land under the doctrine of eminent domain.He claimed that he was illegally removed from his home as “man’s home is his castle.” He held off sheriff’s deputies with a shotgun for seven hours. When the legal hassle finally ended, Anthony had gleaned a great deal of public sympathy.

The name of the proposed museum was again changed, to the “Hollywood Center for Audio Visual Arts”.Similar to the original museum concept, the proposed center would contain displays depicting trends and history in movies, television, radio, and recording.The ground breaking for the now $14 million HollywoodCenter was held Sunday, October 20, 1963, with a gathering of over 3,000 Hollywood representatives, including:

Rosalind Russell served as Master of Ceremonies, Sol Lesser, president of the Hollywood Museum and Ernest E. Debs, CountySupervisor were part of group.The museum dream didn’t come to reality, like many of Hollywood dreams it was turned into “a parking lot”.

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The Garden Court Apartments at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard, owned by Erwin Karz, opened in 1919 with luxurious apartments, Mack Sennett and Mae Murray called it home near the ends of their lives; with oriental carpets, imported wood trim hand-carved molding and even, cherry-wood toilet seats. The elegant rooms were spacious, with original oil paintings. For more than 30 years, Louis B. Mayer kept apartment 417.The guest register listed hundreds of famous names.

Karz in a partnership with Debbie Reynolds launched a plan to convert the Garden Court’s 160 apartments where Hollywood elite had lived and dined into the repository for her auction purchases worth hundred of thousands of dollars.The Garden Court is just 300 feet west of the (Grauman’s) Chinese Theater where millions of tourists annually visit.

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When Harold Lloyd died, his will asked that his 16-acre “Green Acres” estate in Beverly Hills be used as the location of a Hollywood museum.Lloyd also left a fund to pay for upkeep.However, the city of Beverly Hills prohibits business operation in a residential district.The dream faded.

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The City of Los Angeles had purchased the 50-acre WattlesPark in the Hollywood Hills for $2 million dollars ($600,000 of federal funds); Julia V. Wattles would be allowed to continue living in her home on the land.It was thought this might be a site for the museum.

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The dream faded again and was forgotten until now. Another site has been chosen: the May Company building on the northeast corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. It has always been agreed that a home is needed for the tons of priceless memorabilia that tells the history of Hollywood. The Academy Board of Governors approved the project in October, 2012.

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Now, back in the “parking lot” across from the Hollywood Bowl at 2100 North Highland Avenue is the Hollywood Heritage Museum. In 1979, Paramount Pictures donated the Lasky-DeMille Barn to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's Hollywood Historic Trust.The barn was used in the making of the 1914 feature film, Squaw Man.In 1983, the Chamber and Paramount re-donated the barnto the Hollywood Heritage, a CaliforniaState non-profit founded in 1980.The Barn was moved to the parking lot on Highland Ave., in February 1982. Thefollowing three years were spent in restoring the building.It was dedicated on December 13, 1985.This was the land originallydesignated in the 1960s for the HollywoodMuseum thatwas never realized.

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Another HollywoodMuseum opened in 2003, at 1660 North Highland, south of Hollywood Boulevard in the MaxFactorBuilding. Originally a wig maker, make-up artist, and cosmetics manufacturer on Hill Street in Los Angeles, Max Factor opened his S. Charles Lee designed “Hollywood Regency Art Deco” style studio in 1935.Lee was the architect of a number of grand moviepalaces.

It is believed that Max Factor originated the term “make-up.”In the lobby of the Max Factor Museum is a photo of Mabel Normand with Max Factor, applying make-up for her Hal Roach movie “Anything Once” (1926) taken before Max Factor built his studio on Highland.This HollywoodMuseum contains over 10,000 items including costumes, props, photographs, scripts, and other artifacts. Of special interest are three make-up salons dedicated to blonde, brunette, and redhead complexions.

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The collections of Hollywood treasures had been coming together for years for the ill-fated Los AngelesCountyHollywoodMuseum,from archives and personal collections, and included photographs, postcards, historic documents, films, scripts, costumes, and other movie memorabilia.The permanent exhibition was planned to demonstrate motion picture and television production, have a TV studio, and house exhibits of animation, editing, lighting, cinematography, make-up, and other professional techniques.Of course, a completely equipped theatre for presentation of films and concerts, administrative offices, and classrooms were planned.

The collections of Sol Lesser and Cecilia B. DeMille were added, with some of the first color television cameras and the newest motion picture cameras.The museum needed artifacts, but money perhaps was even more important.Ben Hoberman, vice president and general manager of KABC Radio in 1963 gave a public service check and a tape of KABC promo spots, as part of a month-long campaign on behalf of the 14 million dollar museum.

The Los Angeles County Hollywood Museum in 1964 added new board members who brought with them money, like Harold C. McClellan, chairman of Old Colony Paint & Chemical Company who had deep pockets. Theboard totaled 41 membersrepresenting different segments of the “audio and visual arts”, each with their own motivations.

Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) member, Ray Brian, business agent of the Peoria and Pekin Union Railway, made a donation of his “antique projectors” for the permanent exhibit to Arthur Knight, curator at the Hollywood Museum.

Among the items that came from the Cecilia B. DeMille estate were the original camera used in “The Squaw Man” and prints of 70 of DeMille’s films, albums, costumes, andscripts. Hehad always been interested in establishing of the Hollywood museum.(It is lovely that his “Barn” sits on the site of the planned museum.)

As time passed and the civic project delayed, it had begun to be maligned and mocked. Itwas called a boondoggle, a white elephant, a Hollywood peep show, and a tourist trap.A year and half after the ground-breaking nothing was on the site.The plans for the museum were called “aquicksand of indecision, with a lack of direction and misunderstanding as to its purpose and value.”

The county government continued to support the project, but more than 1.2 million dollars of government funds had been spent, so they cut off the money and appointed a 3-person committee to investigate.The committee’s report criticized the museum’s management, the lack of professional staff, its interior design, missing funds, and a lack of fund raising.The land had cost $460,000, and nearly 1 million dollars had been paid for architectural services and site development before the county froze all spending at the end of 1964.

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Eight years later,Los AngelesCity purchased several million dollars of stored memorabilia from the HollywoodMuseum Associates. After the county had stop the funding, accordingi to William Frederickson, general manager of the Recreation and Parks Department, the City of Los Angeles paid $22,000 in back storage fees and was given the rights to artifacts, inwhat was termed a “holding action.”

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Although other museums were interested in purchasing the artifacts, Mayor Sam Yorty and Councilman Paul Lamport headed a drive to keep the material until the city could find a permanent home for them.It was a time of tight budgets, C. Irwin Piper, who was general manager at the time cut the budget at Recreation and Parks (R&P).R&P had taken over the collection – ranging from the projector used in L.A.’s first movie theater to the costumes of Hollywood sex symbols.

Clarion Inman, director of the CityPhotographyCenter was placed in charge of most of the artifacts. Many of the artifacts were deteriorating. Hundred of actors and technicians had donated photos, costumes, props, equipment, and tons of printed matter. The city agreed to display twoitems at the R&PPhotographyCenter. The rest were stored

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Back in 1987,Los Angeles Times’ writer Dean Murphy wrote “Rare Hollywood Artifacts,” the City of Los Angeles could not find a home for the Hollywood memorabilia because of the donation agreement required that the material be kept in the Hollywood district, and if an outside institutiontook control of the storage of the collection, the city could ask for the items back at anytime.

In 1965, the five-story LincolnHeights jail at 421 North Avenue 19 at the edge of the Santa Fe Railroad yard was closed as a jail.Subsequently, the City of Los Angeles used the second floor to store the Hollywood Museum items, but sadly old magazines, programs, and books, were damaged by water from burst pipes, dirt from open windows coating the walls and floors, no heat, and no air conditioning. In 1984, Linda Barth, whooversaw the collection for the Department of Recreation and Parks said, "Some of the material is molding so badly you can't tell what it is anymore."

According to the Los Angeles Times article, dozens of items, including a white tuxedo worn in 1935 by Marlene Dietrich in "The Devil Is a Woman," were missing from the collection, presumably stolen by film crews who often shot prison movies at the unattended jail.Heavy locks on the storage rooms had been cut or picked open several times over the years.It was reported that much of that collection, was on loanto several universities and libraries in an effort to get the most valuable items to safety, including UCLA, USC, American Film Institute, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Natural History Museum, and Fashion Institute of Design Merchandising.The remaining collection was left in unorganized heaps on dirty floors.Most of the passed-over artifacts were thought worthless.Even a piano thought to have been owned by Rudolph Valentino was left to decay.

At one point, the City officials wanted the University of California, Riverside's library to temporarily house theover 15,000, 78- and 33-rpm recordings stored in cardboard boxes at the Lincoln Heights jail. However, John Tanno, librarian at Riverside, said they were not interested in caring for a collection that could be taken away.

Edward Maeder, then curator of the costume and textile department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),said the museum would accept the city's collection if the museum could get rid of damaged pieces and those of little artistic or historical significance.LACMA, which has a 60,000-piece costume and textile department, refused to accept any of the costumes.The collection included everything from a pair of blue jeans worn by Gary Cooper in "High Noon" in 1952 to the slinky gown Jean Harlow wore when she sunk her feet in concrete outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1933,"We would want to be able to pick and choose," Maeder said.

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Sam Gill, former archivist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, took about 80,000 photographs and negatives from the city’s collection, for the Margaret Herrick Library. Gill said the Academy took items on loan because they were not being properly cared for by the City. “Stability of the collection is an important issue,” he said.

Sheldon Jensen, assistant general manager of the Department of Recreation and Parks, said the Department at one time paid about $15,000 a year to provide cold storage for the collection's delicate nitrate films; those films were loaned to UCLA in 1981.

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The Recreation and Parks Department also asked the city attorney's office to look into amending the HollywoodMuseum Associates contract so that some of the collection could be donated to institutions outside Hollywood. Hollywood Museum Associates no longer exists, however, getting the terms could have been difficult, city officials said.The city ran into opposition from Hollywood Exhibition, which negotiated to build a $60-million museum as part of a 17-story office tower and hotel near the Chinese Theatre. (This never happened).The money and plans evaporated like so many dreams.

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The hunt for all the donations is in full swing. Ben Turpin’s widow in the 1960s wanted the HollywoodMuseum to have Turpin’s bronzed lucky shoe and aradiator cap made from a World War One shell. Original artifacts fromall over Hollywood arewaiting to have a home.Many are still decaying in the LincolnHeights Jail.The question is, will the AcademyMuseumbe the dream come true?

COMMENTS

Comments

A note from Paul Gierurki… (July 6, 2016)“Our friend Marilyn Slater has penned a marvelous article documenting the sad fate of some critical movie memorabilia that was donated for a proposed Hollywood museum -- which never materialized. People like archivist Sam Gill, who saved some of it, need to be celebrated for their foresight and quick action. Others... not so much. This should be required reading for every single collector, archivist, historian, and classic film fan, so that something like this never happens again.” Paul

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An email from Jack Ince “Lonestar Jack”… (July 6, 2016)

“You have awakened a trove of long forgotten memories from myyouth when I stayed on and off with my uncle John Ince onOrchid Ave just a few yards uphill from Franklin Blvd rightbehind Grauman's Chinese theater.

I used to take my tennis racket over to the Garden CourtApartments and taken a clay court lesson from Guy de Leon.Afterwards I would go across the street to the Gotham Deliand Hotel for a huge corned beef sandwich or go down theblock to Brown's Ice Cream Shop for their never to beduplicated hot fudge sundae.

A few years later aftersurviving a tour of duty with the 82nd Airborne Div alongwith Richard St Johns and William O Wiard I was enraged atthe Sam Yorty and Sheriff Pritchess eviction of StevenAnthony. I even wanted to join forces with the soon to bedisposed Mr. Anthony. It was the youth in me I guess. Rumorhad it that he was relocated to the Bakersfield area wherehe spent his few remaining years. (I can’t findanything on Google). That was when we lived on Courtney Avenext door to the unfortunate Barbara Payton -- where TomNeal decked Franchot Tone.

Later we built a house on Harold Way and wound up two housesfrom Brenda Allen.

See what memories you stirred up -- but I love it.

I knew "Clarence" Iman from his PhotoCenter dayswhen he sent one of my competition photographs to LA'ssister city in Japan as part of an exchange program where itended up on the cover of that city's publication.

Forgive my rambling, but the names that I no longed hear andthe images I no longer see by virtue of living in a waydifferent world seem to set off the old memory maker in me.No longer can I drive up the coast and say "that iswhere Thelma Todd died of carbon monoxide, or up Summitdrive and say "remember Tom Mix and RonaldColeman" they lived there.

Is the iconic gold cylinder of the May Co going to be athing of the past -- the end of Miracle Mile?

It is only through dedicated people like you who can makethe Academy dream come true as the trend seems to be awayfrom history in the younger generation and first handknowledge and the "I was there stories" are fasteroding.

Unfortunately, I came along about a generation too late tobe able to contribute anything to the early history of thisfabulous industry and as a result I can only feed off andenjoy the fruits of your labors.

Once again I appreciate your work and devotion to theLooking for Mabel web site and the pleasures it brings me.